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The Play of Language in Ionesco's Play of Chairs ELIZABETH KLAVER If the twentieth century's concern with language and textuality could be summed up in one playwright, Eugene lonesco would stand a very good chance of taking the distinction. Certainly, on the basis of three of his earliest plays, The BaldSoprano, The Lesson, and The Chairs, he can probably be considered the grandmaster of the metalinguistic play, for language not only forms the basis ofhis fictional worlds, but is held up to the light, examined, and displayed from quite a variety of angles. Although many ofthe linguistic concerns of The Bald Soprano and The Lesson can be recognized in the later play, The Chairs introduces a new level of complexity in what is said about language and how. The play foregrounds the problematics of language not only as discourse, but also as critical method, delving into a critique of its own ontological basis and the kind of dramatic discourse and dramatic world thus produced. Such an examination of language ends up generating critical implications for the nature of literature, both theatrical and narrative. Many aspects of language, which The Bald Soprano foregrounds, are brought forward to The Chairs. For instance, the cliched, mechanical speech of the Smiths and Martins, such as "An Englishman's home is truly his castie,'" can be heard echoing in such political-sounding slogans as "I have something to say, amessage to communicate to humanity."2 The axiomatic truths, which the Smiths and Martins are fond of spouting, are also recognizable in The Chairs; Mr. Martin asserts that "The ceiling is above, the floor is below" (p. 38) and Mrs. Smith announces to her husband that "We've eaten well this evening. That's because we live in the suburbs of London and because our name is Smith" (p. 9); when the old man in The Chairs wonders why it bas not always been dark at 6 o'clock, he answers his own question with the axiom, "It's because the earth keeps turning around, around, around, around ..." (p. 479). As lonesco writes in Notes alld CoullIer Notes, the dependable, undeniable truths ofhis English Lesson manual, upon which the semblance ofconversation 522 ELIZABETH KLAVER in The BaldSoprano is based, got out ofcontrol, and started to break down.' As it progresses, The Bald Soprano gradually works away from an exchange of truisms to a climax of shouted, disconnected cliches and slogans: MRS. SMITH Mice have lice, lice haven't mice. MRS. MARTIN Don't ruche my brooch! MR. MARTIN Don't smooch the brooch! MR. SMITH Groom the goose, don't goose the groom. MRS. MARTIN The goose grooms. Finally, language breaks down completely, and the characters are left shouting letters at each other: MR. SMJTH A, e, it 0, n, a, e, i, 0 , n, at e, i. 0, U, i! MRS. MARTIN B, c, d, f, g, I, m, n, p, T, S, tv, W, x, z! (Pp.40-41) Ionesco notes that he experienced a "collapse of reality" in language while writing The Bald Soprano: dialogue was reduced to syllables, consonants and vowels, and "words [were] turned into sounding shells devoid of meaning.'" Language in this play is reduced to its lowest common denominator, words emptied of content, sound without meaning. This basic movement of language towards reduction and emptying of itself also appears in The Chairs, but this text manages it quite differently. Whereas The Bald Soprano builds relentlessly towards one final, linguistic chaos, The Chairs breaks language down and then reforms it again and again. Quite early in the play, dialogue between the old couple collapses into mere sound: OLD MAN No ... I don't wan't; I don't wa~a-a-ant. OLD WOMAN Orphan-Iy. orphan-lay, orphan-1o, orphan-10o, OLD MAN No-o-o '" N-o-o. OLD WOMAN Li Ion lala, Ii Ion 1a lay, orphan-ly, orphan-lay, relee-relay, orphan-li-rclee-rela ... (P.482) The old people recover themselves and continue dialogue until a similar, but not quite as complete, linguistic failure occurs, introduced with the stage direction, (Desultory conversation, getting bogged down): OLD WOMAN If only! OLD MAN Thus, I...

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